Today, SiriusXM announced that it had successfully completed its acquisition of Pandora Media, effectively making it “the world’s largest audio entertainment company,” per a statement from the company. Officially announced last fall, SiriusXM fully acquired Pandora for $3.5 billion dollars, though the satellite radio company previously owned approximately 15 percent of Pandora before the deal.
SiriusXM recently launched a question-and-answer page about the merger on its site, which details the motivation behind the acquisition as well as its effects on listeners. The company notes that “nothing is changing at this time,” as SiriusXM and Pandora will continue to operate as separate services without any immediate content or price changes for the time being. The satellite radio company also assured consumers that SiriusXM will remain ad-free, which will “be a key differentiator for SiriusXM” from Pandora’s ad-supported streaming service.
In response to why SiriusXM decided to acquire Pandora Media, the company offered, “This is an exciting transaction for our company. Together, SiriusXM and Pandora are uniquely positioned to lead a new era of audio entertainment by delivering the most compelling content to millions of listeners – in the car, at home and on the go.” SiriusXM also added that “The combined company will benefit listeners and artists by growing two vibrant platforms offering artists a larger reach, and providing listeners with the best, most compelling content around.” Special offerings from the merger are currently in the works and will be coming soon.
Via Variety, Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM, elaborated:
This is a tremendous outcome for two organizations with complementary platforms and large audiences, and we could not be more excited to be moving forward as one company. With SiriusXM’s subscription-based national service of curated and exclusive content and programming, and Pandora, the largest U.S. streaming music provider with its highly personalized free ad-supported service, under one roof, SiriusXM now reaches more than 100 million people across its audio products. Importantly, the premier products that SiriusXM and Pandora listeners have enjoyed for years are not changing. That said, good things come from being together, and we look forward to creating new unique audio packages that combine our strengths and offer an even wider range of content to our listeners.
The acquisition comes on the heels of a big year for SiriusXM, which recently earned record revenue for the fourth quarter and year of 2018, with the company growing 7% and 6% respectively.
